JOSHUA 13-17 GODS PEOPLE ADVANCE TOGETHER INDIVIDUALLY2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Joshua 13-17 Gods People Advance Together Individually

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. Well, here in the book of Joshua, we are getting to see the fulfillment of a promise that was a long time coming.

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And we've watched God lead Israel out of Egypt through Moses and then brought to the edge of the promised land. And then Joshua is handed the baton of leadership and Joshua leads the people into the promised land. And now they're finally beginning to conquer the promised land, to grasp hold of, to take the thing that God had promised to them so many years ago.

And now as they've conquered the land, we're jumping into chapter 13 where the first campaign has completed. Joshua has conquered the land as a whole. And now it's time to begin to divide up the land to the different tribes, to the different children of Israel, the groups of the children of Israel that God had established.

And as we look at the fulfillment of this promise and the way that God is handling this, there is some great insight here about how God relates to his people and calls his people to relate to one another. I've titled the message this morning, God's People Advance.

together individually. And I know that doesn't quite make sense. There's a little bit of a contradiction there. It's together, but it's also individual, but it's also together and it's also individual. And what we see here illustrated in the way that these things are unfolding is what we see established in the New Testament described as the body of Christ, that there is one body, but many members. And this is the way that it has always been with God and his people that

He has established it in such a way that we are together as well as individual. And there's a plan that God has for us together. And there's a work that God does within us corporately together.

But there's also that individual part of the work, and those things are not separate. They're not distinct. They're not detached from one another. But the way that God advances us as a people, as his people together, is by the work that is going on within us today.

individually. And so this morning, I want to encourage you to consider the connections that you have, the people that God has placed around you in the body of Christ, the people that God has connected you to because your life, your spiritual health, your walk, your faith, your advancement and retreating, that impacts not just you, but we're together. And what you do and how you live and your health is

really is connected to the rest of us and our health and how we live and the way that God advances us as his people. And so we're going to see that starting out here in chapter 13, looking at verses 1 through 7 for point number one, and that is that God assigns you a portion.

God assigns you, you as a member of the body of Christ, you as one of God's people, one of God's children, he gives you a portion, a piece of his work, of what he wants to accomplish and what he wants to do. Looking at verse one again, it says, now Joshua was old and

We begin here in chapter 13 with the Lord telling Joshua that he's old.

Now, Joshua has been leading the children of Israel for just kind of a short amount of time, but he's been with the children of Israel for a long time since they came out of Egypt. He was of the original generation. And so he, you know, saw them go to the edge of the promised land and

decide to not trust God and not go into the promised land, wander the wilderness for 40 years, then come back to the border of the promised land. Then he takes leadership and he leads the children of Israel into the promised land. They accomplish that first campaign where they take out the big kings of the land. And it tells us, if you rewind back to chapter 11, the very last verse of the chapter, Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses. And

And so there was a conquering of the major kingdoms of the promised land, but it wasn't a complete and total conquering of the land in that there was many cities, many pockets of inhabitants that were still yet to be dealt with and driven out of the land.

And here, as that big task still remains, God looks at Joshua and he says, Joshua, you're old. You're advanced in years and there still remains a lot to do. There is a lot of work that is yet to be done, a lot of land that is yet to be possessed.

And God goes on and describes that land in verses two through six with the different territories and boundaries and cities. And rather than get into the details of the names, here's a quick look at the geography where you have here the land of Israel. You have right in the middle of the Dead Sea and it's the Jordan River that runs right into that, flowing all the way up from the Sea of Galilee. And so that is kind of like the signature piece of the Promised Land. You have the Mediterranean Sea

as one border and then the Jordan as the other border. There was a couple of tribes on the east side of the Jordan River, but primarily the land that God was giving to the nation of Israel was between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea up through the Jordan, up through Galilee and that whole region. And you'll see that a little bit more as we look at the different tribes. But this is the land that God had given to them. And Joshua has led them up into the north and into the south and conquered the major kings and kingdoms.

You need to stop and remember that

This was the land flowing with milk and honey. Remember when the spies came back and they had these like huge grapes, you know, that they came, a cluster of grapes that they carried between them. There was this great produce. This was a desirable place to live. And so it was packed with people. It was packed with inhabitants, packed with those who were opposed to God and opposed to God's people. And so there was still much land yet to possess and still much work to be done. But Joshua is old.

God makes it clear. I mean, he tells us Joshua's old and then God tells him directly, Joshua, you're old, you're well advanced in years. So how is the rest of the work going to be accomplished? There's all these other peoples, all this other land, all this other territory. How is that going to happen? Well, that brings us to verse seven here of Joshua 13. God says, now, therefore, divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.

So God says, you're old. There's a lot still to do. So how's it going to get done? Here's how it's going to get done. Divide the land as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel. There needs to be a division of land.

And the next few chapters that we've read through this past week and still some more to come this week describes those boundaries. And so there's a quick look at those boundaries of the different tribes. And again, you have three tribes on the east side of the Jordan. You have Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben. There's a lot of conversation we could have about that. Then you have the rest of the tribes, nine and a half tribes on the west side with, you know, them,

split up in different parts of Israel from north to south all the way through the land that God had given to them. But here's the thing that I would ask you to think about as we look at these things this morning. Not so much about the details about the exact borders and all of those kinds of things, but to think about the division of the land. God tells Joshua, divide this land between the tribes.

And when you think of the word divide, you might think of it in the idea of, in the sense of separation. But that would be the wrong sense of the word. That the division that God is calling for here is not for an independence, but for

carve out this land. Here's Judah's land. That's Judah. And they're going to be independent, completely separate from, divided from the other tribes. No, it is not that kind of division. But the word to divide can also be used to talk about grouping things together. And it can be used to talk about assigning responsibility.

Essentially, God laid out the promised land. He drew lines and he says, okay, Judah, this area here, there's still a lot to be possessed, right?

There's still a lot of land to conquer. There's still a lot of work to do. So I'm drawing this circle here. That's for you guys to take care of. You need to, you're responsible to make sure this land gets possessed, gets taken care of, gets conquered. And then you, Simeon, here's your circle and that's your responsibility. And then Manasseh, here, you guys take care of this land. And God is dividing the land, not separating the people, but

But he is assigning responsibility for each tribe to take care of different parts of the land, to finish the work that Joshua began, to finish the inheritance of this land that God had promised to them. This is the way that God deals with and works with his people. He has a work that he desires to do.

He has a plan and purpose for all of the different aspects of his plan. And the way that he does that, well, he doesn't raise up Joshua II, right? I mean, so there was Moses who led the people out. Then that baton was handed to Joshua and Joshua led the people. And so it was a continuation of that work. But now it doesn't pass on to Joshua Jr.,

And now there's, you know, one other person who's now going to lead and deal with all the enemies that are left in the land. No, now God divvies up. It's another play on the word divide. He divvies up the responsibility to finish that work between the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. He assigns each of them a portion. It is a portion for them to enjoy, for them to live in, for them to inhabit.

but it's also a portion for them that they have responsibility for to make sure that God's work is done in that portion, in that region.

This is the same way that God deals with us as believers today in the New Testament, not conquering the promised land, but as members of the body of Christ, we have that similar kind of illustration and understanding. In Romans chapter 12, Paul tells us, as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

Paul tells us we are in a similar condition to the nation of Israel in Joshua's day. We are many and we're gathered together. And you can think of the body of Christ and the church as, you know, in the universal sense that the body of Christ is all believers throughout all time, you know, that we all come together and are the body of Christ. But

But then also we understand that there are individual churches that are called the body of Christ, like the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 12, 27. Paul says, you are the body of Christ and members individually. And so we can look at this and understand that God gathers together a group of people

And he deals with them as a group. They are one body. They're one group. God has connected you with other believers in the body of Christ. And there is a real connection there. There is a real establishment of that relationship there. And there is this complexity in that there is one body, but there are also many members. It was one nation, Israel, but there was also the 12 tribes. And

And what God did was he then divided the work so that each tribe, and then further down in that, each family within each tribe was assigned a portion. And that was their responsibility. And they were charged with taking care of, they got to live there. There was great blessings with that, that inheritance that they received, but there was also the responsibility for what God wanted to accomplish there.

And this morning, I would ask you to allow that illustration of the land being divided to speak to you about how God works within us as a congregation, within us as a group of people that God has gathered together and connected together.

Now, one of the ways that this is often discussed and talked about, and not in a negative sense I'm referring to this, but it can be talked about within a church service. So we could look at how the different pieces that go on, right? You have the worship piece, and the ushers piece, and the children's ministry piece, and the Spanish ministry piece, and there's all these different aspects that are going on, and together we pull off a church service, and there is that process.

one thing, but there's many parts to it. And that is an accurate way to understand it, to think about a church service in that way. But I want to ask you to think a lot deeper than just that kind of activity. Your devotional life, for good or for bad, impacts the rest of us as members who have been called together by the Lord. Your devotional life, whether it's really strong or whether it's not so strong,

whether it's non-existent or, you know, really right on, your devotional life has an impact on the rest of the people that God has you connected to. Again, whether it is for good or for bad. Your obedience to God.

In different aspects of your life, you might have it kind of compartmentalized in your mind and think that, you know, what you do here, you know, in connection with other church people or on church property or church activities and church events, you know, that's one thing. And then what I do at work, that's a different thing. And what I do at home, that's a different thing. But your obedience to God, wherever you are, however you live, whatever you're involved with,

has an impact not just on you and on your life, but also on the other people around you that God has placed there within the body of Christ. The steps of faith that you take have an impact. You are blessed whenever you trust God at his word and go forward and do what God has called you to do. You're blessed. You will be blessed and there will be challenges, but you have the great promises of blessing that come with obedience to God and

At the same time, those things are carried over and there's an impact for your steps of faith that happens for the people around you as well. The way that you deal with sin in your life has an impact, makes a difference. You might remember the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 was talking to them about a sin situation in their midst.

And they were glorying at how tolerant they were of this sin. And Paul tells them in 1 Corinthians 5-6, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Think about that concept for just a moment. Baking a loaf of bread or some type of pastry like that, and you put in the little bit of leaven, and it spreads through the whole batch of dough. It leavens the whole lump. Wow.

Paul says, when you allow a little bit of sin in your life that way, it doesn't just affect that little piece where the leaven was introduced. And many times we can think of ourselves divided in the sense of we're completely separate. And what I do in my life and how I fall short and how I fail or how I succeed and am victorious, that mostly, you know, is about me. And it's mostly impacting me and my life and yeah, maybe my immediate family, but that's

We maybe miss the realization, the understanding that there's a connection between you and the rest of the members of the body of Christ. And where that leaven is introduced is not where it stays, but it impacts. It leavens the whole lump. Your victories, your defeats, your doctrine. God has connected us in such a way that what happens in our life and our walk with God, our relationship with God,

your spiritual life, your home life, your workplace, these all have an impact on the people around you. That's the way that God has designed us. We advance together, even though we're individuals. But as we, well, respond to the Lord and walk with the Lord, it plays a part in the work that God is doing in the people around us as well. If Judah leaves enemies in the land,

that doesn't just affect Judah. If they don't go in and possess the land that God has given to them, it doesn't just affect them. It affects the other tribes around them as well. In a similar way, we have been given a portion. God has a call on your life. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter two that there's this path with good works that God has set up before us. He knows what he's called us to. He's called a specific life and he's placed it in front of us. And he does that

Not just for our benefit, not just for our sake. We do benefit when we walk with God. We do benefit in those things, but others benefit as we walk with God also. And we may miss out if we don't walk with God in the way that he has called us to, and don't take the steps of faith that he has called us to take. And if we don't deal with the sin that he's called us to deal with, then we miss out on some of what God wants to do. But it's not just us personally, individually.

but there are people around us. God has connected us in such a way that there is an impact. I can't be the Christian that God desires for me to be completely separate and independent from you. Part of that includes you becoming the Christian that God desires for you to be. Gabe can't be the Christian that God calls him to be without Carlos becoming the Christian that God wants him to be. Gabe goes, oh man, I'm in trouble now, huh?

This is part of the reality. And this is what we see demonstrated here in the tribes of Israel, that God has portioned the land and said, look, this is your responsibility. You're not completely separate. It doesn't just affect you. You're part of the whole for good or for not so good. There's much land yet to be possessed. There's a work that God desires to do.

And the division is not for separation. Not, you know, hey, if Judah catches on fire, well, there's this wall of division. We divided the land and we set up walls so fire can't cross over to Simeon. No, that's not what God is talking about. No, yeah, your land catches on fire. Well, Paul tells us in Corinthians, when one member suffers, all members suffer with it. And when one member rejoices, all members rejoice with it. There is this connection that we have. God has bound us together.

and assigned us a portion. We can tend to think very individually. It's part of our culture, maybe also part of just our sinful nature that we are kind of self-focused and self-centered, but there is so much more to the plan of God in your life. And there's a great impact that is made.

And so as we look at this portion, there is a work that God desires to do. Moving on to point number two, we're going to look now in chapter 14 of Joshua. And point number two is ask God to fulfill his promises. Since it is true that you have been assigned to this portion,

that there is an attachment that you have to other members in the body of Christ, that there is an incentive for us to ask God to do a mighty work for our sake. And we are benefited from that. But also with the understanding, with the knowledge that when God does a mighty work in me and in my life, it's not just for my benefit, but everyone around me partakes in the work that God is doing when he does that work.

We're going to jump into verse 6 and read through verse 11 here of Joshua chapter 14. Here's what it says. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart."

Verse 10. Verse 10.

And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these 45 years. Ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now here I am this day, 85 years old. As yet, I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me. Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Here we are introduced to this man named Caleb.

As the land is beginning to be portioned out, Caleb comes up to Joshua and says, Joshua, I want to remind you of something that God said. Now, Caleb was one of the original 12 spies. You remember when they were at the promised land the first time? They're right on the border. Moses sends in the 12 spies. They spy out the land. They come back with the report. 10 of the spies said, this is terrible. We can never do this. We should run away as fast as we can.

But two of the spies said, it is pretty challenging, but there's also great blessing. And God is good. God is big. We can do this. Let's go take the land that God has given to us. Those two spies who gave the good report were Joshua and Caleb. And they are the only two who survived that generation. The rest of them wandered in the wilderness and died out in the wilderness until now they have been brought back. Now they're entered in.

Joshua is there, but Caleb is there now saying, I was with those other guys. I wanted to go into the promised land, but those other 10 spies, they made the heart of the people melt, he says in verse eight. Now think about that for just a moment. In verse eight, he says, they made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. I completely and totally followed the Lord and believed God. I trusted God. But notice the life that Caleb has had.

He has wholly followed the Lord in the wilderness wandering for 40 years. Now he's back and he wants the land that God has promised to him. Even though Caleb wholly followed the Lord and Joshua wholly followed the Lord, it's interesting to note that they could not inherit their portion of land until the rest of the congregation entered in. Think about that.

He was right on. But God didn't say, okay, all of Israel, they're going to wander in the wilderness. And you, Caleb, you bring your family and I'm going to give you your peace ahead of time. They're going to join you 40 years later, but you can have your inheritance right now. That didn't happen. Why? Well, because God's people advance together individually.

There is the individual work. It was necessary for Caleb to wholly follow the Lord. That was a part of the work and a part of the process. But he couldn't inherit what God had for him until the rest of the congregation was with him in that. Until the rest of the people that God had gathered together were there, he could not inherit it.

There is this binding together. Again, we've all been given portions, but they're not our own individual, it's just me and Jesus type of things. There's great blessing as you wholly follow the Lord for you personally, individually. It's not limited to that.

There's an overflowing. And when you miss out on what God has for you and you don't inherit the portion that God has given to you, you don't walk in the way that God has called you to, well, there's also an impact that way as well. And so here's Caleb. He was 40 years old, he says in verse seven, when he first spied out the land. He spent about 40 years in the wilderness. Joshua has led the people in. It seems like they've been in the land for about five years now, conquering the land, taking out the major players.

Now it's time to divide up the land. Caleb says, I'm 85 years old now, and I'm finally ready to receive my inheritance. Caleb is psyched. He is so excited. I've waited for so long. I was ready to go in right then to fight those battles and receive that. I was ready, but I had to wait. And now I'm back, and I don't care that I'm 85 years old. I'm ready to go in. I'm ready to conquer. I'm ready to take the land that God has given to me. Verse 12 says,

Now, therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day. For you heard in that day how the Anakim were there and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as an inheritance. All of the reasons that freaked out the 10 spies, Caleb lists and he says, look,

There's great giants there. There's fortified cities. It's mountainous. I want it. God told me I was going to have that. I want that promise that God gave to me. And here Caleb is with great boldness asking God to fulfill his promises. He says, I don't care that I'm old.

I don't care that I'm 85. I'm still able. I'm still able to receive what God has promised. It's not too late for me to receive what God told me he wanted to give me. Now, therefore, give me this mountain which the Lord spoke about in that day. He provides for us great inspiration to be bold and ask God to fulfill his promises. Pastor Dave Guzik puts it this way. We should imitate Caleb's boldness in asking for what God promised him.

We may find it hard to believe, but God appreciates this kind of boldness. God appreciates the boldness of one who will say, Lord, you said you would do this. God, you declared this would be the case and this would be fulfilled. Lord, I'm asking you to do what you said you would do. God appreciates. He loves boldness.

When you and I take boldness like Caleb to ask God to do what he wants to do, what he promised to do. To have this kind of request, to have this kind of boldness takes real faith because we have to ask, trusting that God relates to us and deals with us in his mercy and his grace. Sometimes we don't ask boldly for God's promises to be fulfilled because we don't deserve God's promises to be fulfilled.

And it requires faith for you to declare, for you to grasp hold of and say, I know I don't deserve it. I know I can't earn it, but Lord, would you give me the things you promised to give me? Lord, would you do the work that you said you would do? Lord, would you accomplish your purposes that you want to accomplish? In spite of me, it requires boldness to trust God for real and ask him to do that which he said he desires to do.

Jesus encouraged us in Luke chapter 11. He says, I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. There is this instruction, this exhortation to ask, to be bold and to ask. There are some things that will not happen if

Without us asking. Not because God's reluctant. Not because God doesn't want to give. Not because we have to persuade him and convince him and make him all kinds of promises so that finally he does, you know, what it is that we need done. There's just the way that God works with us. That he wants us to be engaged with him in the work. And if Caleb just sat there and said, hey, I'll just take whatever I get.

I mean, I don't want to be proud or anything like that. I'd be selfish. I'm not going to ask. And there's lots of ways that if Caleb fell prey to the mind games that happen in our own heads, he could have talked himself out of asking. But Caleb wholly followed the Lord. He really believed God at his word. God said he wanted to do this, so he asked God to do that. Would you give me this land? James tells us,

There are some things that you don't have because you don't ask for them. There are some promises of God. There are some works of God in your life. There are some miracles. There are some things that you just, you don't participate in because you don't ask God for them. Now he goes on to say, there are some things that you ask for and you don't get because you're asking God

selfishly, you're still self-centered. Again, you're dividing the land and you're saying, it's just me and I'm just going to get what I want. And you're not thinking corporately and for the good of everyone around you. And so those kinds of requests, you know, God doesn't have to answer those. But to stop and to think that there are some things that God could do and would do in my life if I would believe him at his word and ask him for it. Boy, that's an incredible thing.

Ask God to fulfill his promises. There's an abundance of promises that we have in the scriptures. There's promises that God has perhaps given to you individually and personally. Ask God. You don't deserve it, but trust God. Believe God when he says he deals with you, not according to works, but according to his grace and his mercy. As you believe in Jesus Christ, all the promises of God are yes and amen. Ask God to fulfill his promises for your sake.

but also understanding it's for the sake of the others around you that God has placed there and attached to you. When you ask and receive God's promises, you're not the only one that's blessed. And when you don't ask and miss out on what God would do, you're not the only one impacted. We advance together. God has bound us together in that way. Moving on into chapter 15 now of Joshua, we get

Point number three, and that is do the work God has assigned to you. Not only do we need to ask God regarding the promises that he's given to us, but then we actually need to do the work, to involve ourselves, to expend energy, to invest in the things that God has called us to. We're going to jump into verse 13 here of Joshua chapter 15. It says this,

Now to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a share among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, namely Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak. Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Then he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. Formerly, the name of Debir was Kirjath Sefer.

And Caleb said, he who attacks Kirjath-sephir and takes it, to him I will give Aksah, my daughter, as wife. So Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Aksah, his daughter, as wife. Now it was so when she came to him that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? She answered, give me a blessing, since you have given me land in the south and

Give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. A couple of things to take note of here in chapter 15. First of all, in verse 14, it tells us Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there. Here's Caleb, 85 year old guy. He drove out the three sons of Anak, the three sons of the great giants, the three sons, the great opposition. Caleb got to work.

And he began to go to battle and to drive out the inhabitants of his portion. Again, the land was divided up and portioned out to the different tribes. And then within the tribes, it was portioned out to the different families. And so Caleb received his family's portion. And he says, okay, let's get to work. Let's clean the house. Let's move out those inhabitants. Let's take possession of what God has given to us. He's doing the work that God has assigned to him.

And he personally gets involved. He personally leads the charge. And then the next battle, the next city, now he comes to Kirgiz Sefer and he says, all right, let's teach other people how to walk with God also. And he says, all right, guys, who wants to lead the charge on this one? I'll give you a reward. I'll give you my daughter as a wife if you lead the charge, if you take the city. And so he's helping others. He's building up others to conquer the city, to take the land, to do the work that God has assigned to them.

He sets for us a great model. Caleb is such a good example for us. Believing God, great faith, taking on giant battles that God has portioned to him and assigned to him. He has everything that he needs. Even though he's old, he leads the charge.

Even though he's old, he's got other men around him who can help him conquer the cities and take the territories. He has everything that he needs. These are the same things that terrified the spies the first time around, but they're still there. The same problems are still there, but Caleb comes back and says, no, God can give us this. He promised me that he was going to give me this. And so he goes forward in faith and does the work that God has assigned to him.

Peter deals with some similar topics and similar concepts in 2 Peter 1. It's a familiar passage, but let me just expound on it for a couple seconds here to think about this and connect these things together. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 3, that God's divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue.

Peter says, look, God has given you everything that you need by his divine power, unlimited power. He's given you everything that you need for life and for godliness. And he's given it to you through the knowledge of him. You walking with God and knowing God will provide you everything that you need for life. The things that you face in the home, in the workplace, wherever you are, God's given you everything you need for that through knowing God and walking with him.

God's given you everything you need for godliness, your spiritual life, your walk with God, your dealing with sin. God's given you everything that you need by you knowing God and walking with him. Peter goes on though in verse four of second Peter one to say, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lusts.

So we have everything we need for life and godliness. And in addition to that, we have all of these promises, he says, these great and precious promises that we get to partake in the divine nature and partake in the nature of God to receive the blessings and be recipients of God's work in our lives through the same channel, through the same avenue. It's through the work that God has done for us, the work that Christ has done for us upon the cross.

We have all these great precious promises that we can ask for and everything that we need for life and godliness. But then Peter goes on to say, verse five, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge. And then he goes on in the next couple of verses to add on more characteristics to the things that you are called to pursue in your spiritual growth. And here's the point. Peter says, you have everything that you need,

You have all of these promises that you can ask for. So therefore, for this very reason, give all diligence to grow, to add to your faith, to develop your walk with God. Because he's given you everything you need, because he's given you all of these promises, Peter says, do the work that God has assigned to you. God has called you to develop a relationship with him. God has called you to

Well, serve a particular role within your home, whether it be as the husband or the wife or the mom or the dad or some light or some other capacity. He's called you to have a role within the workplace. He's called you to have a role within the body of Christ, the church. He's called you and gifted you and given you everything you need for life and godliness and given you great promises. But there has to come the time of diligence. Peter says, giving all diligence to

Add to your faith and actually start to do the work that God has called you to. And again, don't limit this to just, you know, activities in a church service, but your devotional life. It requires some diligence. God has given you everything that you need to have a rich and full connection to him and relationship with him and great promises about your relationship with him. But it does require some diligence on your part.

To actually do the work that God has portioned to you and spend time with God on an ongoing and consistent basis. Your obedience to God, your steps of faith, your dealing with sin, your victories, your defeats, that there's things that God has portioned for you. Great promises that you have and everything that you need to do it. But you also have to go drive out the giants and actually involve yourself in the work that God wants to do. Do the work. Do the work.

that God has assigned you. Clear out the land where God has placed you. Lead charges and have victories. And again, it's not just you that benefits when you do that, but it's everyone around you, everyone that God has connected to you. It wasn't just Caleb's family that was blessed by this activity of Caleb, but Judah was blessed also. He was in their midst. It was part of their territory. Israel was blessed too.

And even thousands of years later, you and I are blessed just looking at the example. There's so much that God does with our obedience to him. Do the work that God has assigned you. I think another noteworthy thing to pay attention to here in chapter 15 is Caleb's daughter. Notice that she learns from her dad that,

And she has great boldness to ask for blessings. In verse 18, it says, now it was so when she came to him, that's her husband now, the guy that she was promised to, she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Othniel, here's what you need to do. Ask my dad for a field. Oh, I don't know. I mean, he just gave you to me as my wife. You know, like that's kind of bold. I don't know if I could ask for a field also. That's quite a bit. And she says, no, no, no.

You need to understand, you've got to ask him for a field. He wants to give you more. Ask him for a field. Okay, okay, I'll ask him for a field. He asks him for a field. He gets a field. And then she shows up. She dismounts from her donkey and says, and Caleb says, what do you wish? I just gave your husband a field. What do you want? And she says, oh, you've given me land. Oh, that's great. How about some springs? Can you give me some fresh springs? And notice Caleb gives her two springs, the upper springs and the lower springs.

She learns from her dad that boldness in asking for blessing. And she's blessed abundantly. She teaches her husband to ask and she asks and they have an abundant provision as a result. It's a great example for us to ask God for those promises, for those blessings that he wants to give us. Considering Caleb's

We need to do the work that God has assigned to us. I like what Thomas Constable says about Caleb. He says, I think none of us would have faulted Caleb if he would have went to Joshua and said, just give me a nice, peaceful, little, quiet place.

He has wholly followed the Lord for a long time. He has been faithful and he's walked with God for a long time. Nobody would follow him for saying, I just need to like, just enjoy. I mean, we're in the promised land now. Let me just, where's the hammock? You know, just let me just go enjoy the hammock. But he doesn't, he doesn't do that. Listen, this is an important lesson for us to learn. There's still work that God has assigned to you. You're not done.

God isn't finished with you. When God is finished with you in that sense, he takes you home. There's still work that God wants to do in your life and through your life. Make sure you're about that work and doing what it is that God has assigned to you for your sake, but also for everybody else who's connected to you.

Invest in your devotional life. Invest in your walk with God and take steps of faith and live at home the way that God has called you to and live at work and be the employee or employer, whatever role you have, that God has called you to be. And all of that, it's not distinct and separate from everybody else that God has called together here. But God has bound us together so that all of our lives impact one another for blessing or not.

Finishing up, we're going to jump to chapter 17 for point number four. And point number four is your work is not too hard for you. Here we're going to jump into where the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are given their portion of land, but they're not too happy with what they received. In verse 14, it says...

Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit since we are a great people in as much as the Lord has blessed us until now? So Joshua answered them, if you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the giants since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you.

But the children of Joseph said, the mountain country is not enough for us. And all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Bethshan and its towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh saying, you are a great people and have great power. You shall not have only one lot.

but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down and its furthest extent shall be yours. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong. Here we come to the contrast to Caleb. Caleb says, give me the big battles, the hard fights, give me the mountain. I want to fight and take the land that God has promised to me.

Here comes the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, and they said, hey, we looked at the land that you gave us, and there's a lot of difficulty there. Can you give us something different, something easier to deal with? There's mountains there. There's like trees and stuff. There's the armies that are there. Did you know they have tanks and chariots and horses? And you know, they're fierce, and you haven't given us a good piece of land. They're not happy with the inheritance. And

There are some people who feel like God hasn't given them enough. God's made it too hard on me. Hasn't given me good land or a lot of blessings or much strength. Again, I would remind you of what Peter says. God's divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness. They had everything that they need, but they didn't want to do the work. It was fearful to exercise faith, to trust God and do the work.

And Joshua explains that to them in verse 17 and 18. He says, no, you are a great people. You may not think that you're a great people. You may not think you're up to the challenge, but you are a great people and have great power. You're not limited to this little space where you don't have to fight. You can fight and you can pick up an ax and you can chop down trees. Yes, you will have to work for it, but you can do it. You can receive the inheritance that God has promised to you.

You have everything that you need. You're not lacking, but you need to be willing to do the work. And again, it provides for us great insight into how God works within us, his people. And there are some who are very bold like Caleb and just, they take the charge and yes. And then there's others who are, well, you know, I just, I'm always in this condition and I always have this

temper and I can't take steps of faith and I can't do that and that's hard to read the Bible every day and I don't know how to share the gospel and I don't, you know, there's just this like, it's too hard. There's the threat of missing out. God has apportioned it to you and he's given you everything that you need. Take possession. Trust God. Involve yourself and do the hard work, yes, but God has it for you. G. Campbell Morgan says, "...the principle thus revealed is of perpetual application."

If the church of God would possess its possessions, it would be far more powerful. If we would only take what God has given to us, the resources, his grace, his mercy, his Holy Spirit, his promises, if we would only grasp hold of and walk in his truth, oh, we would have power.

the power to live the life that God has called us to live. Your work is not too hard for you. God hasn't given you more than you can bear. He hasn't called you to do something that's so challenging. Sometimes, you know, when we talk to people, we're telling them, it's like, I have the worst condition that anybody's ever faced in the whole wide world in all of history. And we know that's not true technically, but that's how we feel. That's what we express. And not that it's wrong to feel that way necessarily, but it's wrong to let that cause us.

to stay in this place of not inheriting, not receiving what it is that God has for us. God's people advance together individually. We're bound together. We're joined together. God has a work for us, and that work progresses or fails to progress as each one of us individually walks in the path that God has set for us. God assigns you a portion. Go forward.

Ask God to fulfill his promises and walk in that life that he has called you to and do the work that he has assigned you. It's not too hard. Go experience what God has placed ahead of you. You'll be blessed. You will benefit. Your family will benefit. Your workplace, your benefit will benefit. And the people that God has connected to you in the body of Christ, we're gonna benefit. We go forward together as we progress individually. Again, Joshua and Caleb,

could not inherit their land until the rest of the congregation entered in. We may not like this aspect of the way that God works, but this is a reality of how God works. A lot of times we think, hey, I can just, you know, live in this sin. I can just entertain this. I can just be lazy in this area of my life. I can just lack. I don't have to do that. And it's true. You have the freedom, but you don't have the freedom in the sense that it only affects me. It only affects, you know, my immediate family. It only affects, that's not the reality.

God has bound us together in a way. Like the children of Israel, he uses the illustration of the body of Christ. We're bound together. One body, many members. When one member suffers, when one member lacks, we all suffer, we all lack. When one member progresses and grows and is blessed and benefits, everybody is blessed and benefits and grows as a result also. And so there's great opportunity for us to be part of the work of God by taking responsibility

our life and our walk with God seriously and receiving all that God has for us. This morning, we get to close the service with a time of communion and it further illustrates this whole concept of

As Jesus took the bread and the cup and he said, look, this is my body, which is broken for you. This is my blood that shed for you. He calls us to do it in remembrance of him and receiving what he has accomplished for us. But, but it's, well, it's called communion, sharing, koinonia, fellowship. It's a picture of that whole connection that we have with one another, that, that we are not only sharing and partaking of Christ, but,

But together we are sharing and partaking of Christ. There's a corporateness to communion. There's a corporateness as we participate together, believing in Jesus and receiving from Jesus and walking with Jesus. It's a special event that God has established for us as we share together in the Lord and the Lord is shared in us. It's not just an individual thing. Sometimes we approach it that way and that's not necessarily wrong. We have our own personal relationship with the Lord that

but not to get it out of balance and to think that it's all completely separate. It's just me and Jesus, that's it. No, it's you and Jesus and everybody else that he's connected you to because that's the way that God works. The worship team's gonna come up and lead us in a song and as they do, the ushers are gonna pass out the bread and the cup and very often, I give the instruction that at any time during the song, you partake between you and the Lord and today, the Lord wants to do it differently.

to help us just remember and grasp hold of this truth. Instead of you partaking on your own individually at any time you want, no, let's all partake together at the end. And so we'll worship the Lord together and we'll share in that fellowship of worship with the Lord and with each other. We're participating together in what God has for us. And then we'll partake of the bread and the cup at the end together because that's how God has called us to live. Let's worship the Lord.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.